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Sonson (Marvel vs. Capcom)
SonSon is one of the four Capcom original characters introduced in Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. Unlike the other three, however, she's actually based on (and related to) the main protagonist of Capcom's 1984 platform game SonSon. Backstory SonSon is a little monkey girl and the granddaughter of the original SonSon, who she's named after in spite of being female. Both are based on the Monkey King, Sun Wukong (known as Son Gokuu in Japanese), the main character of the Chinese novel Journey to the West, and utilize several elements and items from the series, such as the size-changing staff, or SonSon trying to cook her opponent in the Shinka Hakke Jin and turn them into sake. At the time the ancient Abyss awakes from its slumber, the village where SonSon lives is suddenly afflicted by a strange disease. With her grandfather's Ruyi Jingu Bang staff she inherited on hand, SonSon ventures outside in order to discover the source behind this unknown illness. During the ending's ride back home on Ruby Heart's ship, she can be seen onboard happily hanging out with Marrow. In Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, SonSon (spelled "Son Son") makes a cameo in the Days of Future Past stage, featured in a giant wanted poster on the background, with a "Slain" bar over her mugshot. Gameplay SonSon is a strong rushdown character with little need of mixup, for the reach on her attacks makes for good pros, and most of her specials can be used in midair. Her Gansai Hekiretsu is great for poking, and her speed enables for great movement unlike most characters. Unlike most speedsters, her health is at average at best (possibly referencing the original Sun Wukong having durability like stone), and she also has powerful combos and air combos/aerial raves. However, her more under-rated attacks can leave her open to punish, and she's not that spectacular in the bigger tournament scenes. An odd trait is that her cr.HK is not a sweep like most cr.HK attacks, but instead is her normal launcher (aside from all characters' df+HP's). Command Normals *'Gansai Hekiretsu: '(岩砕壁裂,'' Rock Smashing Wall Splitter'') SonSon stabs her staff forward. Great reach and can knockdown down a good distance. Reference to SonSon's original attack used to destroy rocks. Special Moves *'Fuusetsuzan:' ''(風切斬, Wind Slicing Slash'') SonSon drills her staff forward, hitting multiple times if it connects. Can also be done in the air. *'Shienbu: '(子猿舞, Child Monkey Dance) A reference to Wukong's magical hairs. SonSon rips out three strands of hair and shoots out three small monkeys from them. They travel straight across the screen (with two "circling" around the center one, with the stronger button used making them fly further. Can also be done in the air. *'Seiten Rengeki: '(斉天連撃, Equaling Heaven Chain Attack) SonSon spins her staff while flying upward. One of the few anti-air specials that can be super cancelled. Can also be done in the air. Name is a reference to Wukong/Gokuu's title in Japanese, the Seiten Taisei (Equaling Heaven Great Sage). *'Kingin no Hisago: '(金銀の瓢,'' Gourd of Gold & Silver'') Reference to the infamous Kingin no Hisago. A blockable command grab. SonSon takes out the gourd and sucks the opponent in the gourd, cooks it on a bonfire with a banana fan (the same one in the of the gourd's origins) and the opponent is shot out in an explosion. SonSon will have an animation where she looks at the gourd in frustration if the attack fails to connect. *'Hofuku Zenshin:' (匍匐前進,'' Crawling'' Forward) Makes SonSon crawl along the ground and her hitbox becomes very tiny, enabling SonSon to sneak under several kinds of attacks. Pressing an attack button or executing a Special/Hyper move will stop the crawl and immediately make her do the resulting attack, enabling some interesting cancels. *'Air Dash:' Dash forwards or backwards in the air. SonSon rides on the Kinto'un (筋斗雲, Somersault Cloud, AKA the Flying Nimbus) left or right. One of her companions makes a cameo by popping out on the front of the cloud. *'Wall Walk:' SonSon walks around the edges of the screens. Can use P to cancel and drop back on the ground, or K to perform a flying kick from the screen edge that knocks down, making it great for mindgames and crossups. *'Life-Up Peach:' An assist-only attack. SonSon will take a peach that recovers her teammate's life. Assist Attacks Hyper Combos *'Tenchi Tsuukan (Level 1):' (天地通貫,'' Passing Through Heaven & Earth'') SonSon throws her staff into the air, enlarges it, and a giant end of it comes down to smash the foe. If you want to combo, you need to connect with SonSon's initial staff throw — which doesn't have much range (though it makes for a great anti air.) *'POW (Level 1):' Makes the word POW appear and travel across the screen. If it hits, the opponent turns into a fruit which SonSon promptly eats and then spits out a seed. Big time start up on this move, making it all but impossible to combo with, but the hit box is pretty big. It's a reference to the POW item in the SonSon arcade game, which turns all enemies on the screen into food. *'En'ou (Level 1): '''(猿王, ''The Monkey King) SonSon turns into an Oozaru (Great Ape/Monkey) which can be controlled with the joystick and buttons. This lasts for 4 seconds with Super Armor. Pressing Kick makes SonSon breathe fire and while she is doing so the player can aim it up or down with the joystick. Punch buttons do various punch attacks. Great move that inflicts a lot of damage even if the opponent is blocking. Based off of the Oozaru in Japanese folklore, and the move name refers to another popular moniker of Sun Wukong/Son Gokuu and is the most popular nickname. Sprites Trivia *SonSon is voiced by Mayumi Iizuka, who also voiced Tron Bonne. *In the Marvel vs. Capcom Official Complete Works, SonSon is named "SonSon III", implying her father was also named SonSon even though he's never actually mentioned in any official source. This is more likely simply a nod to SonSon II, the sequel to the original game. Although this could be seen as an implication its protagonist is the son of the original SonSon, there are no such implications in-game, which indicates they are the same character. *Several objects and techniques used by Sonson are references to her grandfather's origin game, SonSon. The "POW" Hyper is modeled after an item that turned enemies on-screen into fruit (and in this game, it turns the enemy in one of 3 possible fruits seen in the game). She also gives off a peach as an assist, which is another item in the original game. *One of SonSon's alternative colors gives her a blue palette identical to that of the "Clone SonSon" enemy featured in SonSon II. *A strange ferryman kappa can be seen popping out of SonSon's air dash Nimbus move. *SonSon appears as a character card in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters 2, Card Fighters DS and Street Fighter × All Capcom (in both normal and Monkey King form). In the latter case she appears together with her grandfather and Ton Ton, all representing the SonSon series. Also See SonSon's moves in Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes Category:Marvel vs. Capcom fighters Category:Female video game characters Category:Anthropomorphic martial artists Category:Fictional monkeys Category:Fictional anthropomorphic characters Category:Fictional Chinese people Category:Fictional bojutsuka Category:Fictional women soldiers and warriors Category:Fictional characters introduced in 2000